Amgen Popular Amongst Latest 13F Filers

At Holdings Channel, we have reviewed the latest batch of the 43 most recent 13F filings for the 06/30/2014 reporting period, and noticed that Amgen (NASD: AMGN) was held by 16 of these funds. When hedge fund managers appear to be thinking alike, we find it is a good idea to take a closer look.

Before we proceed, it is important to point out that 13F filings do not tell the whole story, because these funds are only required to disclose their long positions with the SEC, but are not required to disclose their short positions. A fund making a bearish bet against a stock by shorting calls, for example, might also be long some amount of stock as they trade around their overall bearish position. This long component could show up in a 13F filing and everyone might assume the fund is bullish, but this tells only part of the story because the bearish/short side of the position is not seen.

Having given that caveat, we believe that looking at groups of 13F filings can be revealing, especially when comparing one holding period to another. Below, let's take a look at the change in AMGN positions, for this latest batch of 13F filers:

In terms of shares owned, we count 3 of the above funds having increased existing AMGN positions from 03/31/2014 to 06/30/2014, with 7 having decreased their positions and 2 new positions.

Looking beyond these particular funds in this one batch of most recent filers, we tallied up the AMGN share count in the aggregate among all of the funds which held AMGN at the 06/30/2014 reporting period (out of the 1,845 we looked at in total). We then compared that number to the sum total of AMGN shares those same funds held back at the 03/31/2014 period, to see how the aggregate share count held by hedge funds has moved for AMGN. We found that between these two periods, funds increased their holdings by 531,453 shares in the aggregate, from 161,728,521 up to 162,259,974 for a share count increase of approximately 0.33%. The overall top three funds holding AMGN on 06/30/2014 were:

We'll keep following the latest 13F filings by hedge fund managers and bring you interesting stories derived from a look at the aggregate information across groups of managers between filing periods. While looking at individual 13F filings can sometimes be misleading due to the long-only nature of the information, the sum total across groups of funds from one reporting period to another can be a lot more revealing and relevant, providing interesting stock ideas that merit further research, like Amgen (NASD: AMGN).